Wyld Odyssey Backgrounds
This page contains the information necessary to know what the hell backgrounds you can purchase. Ally See Dreams of the First Age book 2: Lords of Creation, Pages 30-31. Exalted characters are fair game, though Celestials who are Better Than You are best represented as Mentors unless they're really fond of you enough to treat you as their equal, such as a lover or someone over whom you have the kind of blackmail material that would get the Deliberative to issue a kill order on them severe and dire enough that the Sun would prosecute it himself when it came to light. There are small but stable populations of Dragon Kings who are also fair game, though the Storyteller would take it as a kindness if you didn't make him learn the rules for them. Same goes for the Jadeborn, who are free of the Great Geas. Most Gods and Elementals and such aboard Autochthonia are Bathistophonian in nature, but not all. Loads of lesser divinities, mostly Terrestrial, have managed to make their living amongst the Great Convergence; some of these have grown quite powerful, while other Creation-Born Divinities of both Celestial and Terrestrial origin have been adaptable enough to find a new niche - or their old niche was still relevant, such as Lytek remaining on his job as the God of Exaltation, complete with his personal guard of Lesser Elemental Dragons and Celestial Lions, some of the few such divinities which remain uncrystallized. But for the most part, you're looking at Ministerial Subroutines and even the Divine Ministers themselves. Ally 3 would get you a friend in a high place; someone who interacts with the Divine Ministers on occasion, such as an Elemental Progenitor. Ally 4 gets you someone who has the ear of the Ministers constantly, such as those Ministerial Subroutines they interact with on a daily or at least weekly basis, and Ally 5 cuts out the middleman and gets you the ear of a Divine Minister. How the hell did you get that? Arsenal No-one on Autochthonia was comfortable with the idea of the Chosen of the Sun and the Moon (and to a lesser extent, the Stars) getting their hands on significant stockpiles of weaponry. However, they were even less enamored of the idea of those Chosen becoming worried that weapons were being deliberately withheld out of fear of them, and amassing stockpiles in secret - or worse, becoming legendary martial artists who needed no weapons whatsoever save their Essence-imbued knuckles. Thankfully, the new Solar Exalted have not proven to be the paranoid lunatics that Autochthon's memories recall. Partly this is because of those memories, mostly because of the lack of the Great Curse, and in part because most of them alive today are the product of Autocthonian society. Greatness is their manifest destiny, but they know well how to temper it so it doesn't get any collateral damage on people and places they love. As such, there has been a relaxing of sorts; a weapon unused is a harmless show-piece, a device for friendly duels and sparring, a symbol of authority and station. The Arsenal background may be purchased up to rating 2, as per Dreams of the First Age Book 2: Lords of Creation, pages 31-33. Ratings higher than this are difficult not because they are restricted, but because the resources to support them require either extraordinary efforts to hoard magical heat, or the infrastructure required is normally beyond the means of one Celestial Exalt and his band of followers, and needs at minimum the sponsorship, aid, or participation in an Autochthonian Nation, or it requires that you be specially empowered and charged by the Divine Ministers of Autochthonia, the Unconquered Sun, Luna, the Maidens, or Bathistophon himself, to champion, protect, guard, or otherwise discharge duty (and weaponry) in the name of a cause greater than yourself. Accumulating an Arsenal rating in excess of 2 will be looked askance at. Any rating of 4 or more may lead to an official request for you to redistribute your arsenal and/or cease acquiring more weapons, as it's starting to put a resources strain on Autochthonia as a whole. This is the primary concern of a high Arsenal rating, which may well be mitigated if your Arsenal background is being used to represent having a cache of high-powered toys for yourself without equipping any large army. The secondary concern, of course, will be debated endlessly behind your back, and you'd be well advised to make a lot of friends and no threatening gestures. *Alchemical Exalted, Terrestrial Exalted, and lesser characters do not possess the Arsenal background; they are beneficiaries of their nation's Arsenal background, representing the massive ease with which they acquire Artifacts. Terrestrials get less bang for their buck because they own the Artifacts they possess, instead of them being property of the State. Artifact Artifact functions essentially identically to the Artifact background found in Exalted, page 111, subject to the following conditions: *Alchemical Exalted use the version found in Manual of Exalted Power: The Alchemicals, Page 92. Yes, they can buy a Grand Daiklaive with one point of Background. **(Jadeborn use the Alchemical version of this background, too.) *Celestial Exalted, such as Solars, Lunars, and Sidereals, use the same version as Alchemicals, except they receive two dots of Artifact for every dot of Background, instead of three. This means they can buy a Daiklaive for one point of Background. *Terrestrial Exalted (irrelevant for this campaign, just listed for completeness' sake) as well as Dragon Kings and Enlightened Mortals, use the version found in Manual of Exalted Power: The Dragon-Blooded, page 103, meaning that they have to buy three dots of Artifact to buy a Grand Daiklaive, but that they can also buy a free suit of 3-dot artifact armor to go with it. Connections This background subsumes both the Contacts and Influence backgrounds found in the main 'Exalted rulebook. Functionally it is identical to having the full rating in each. Determine a broad sphere of influence based on your station; a Terrestrial Exalt would not be able to name the nation of Estasia-Lookshy as his sphere of influence, but would be able to name vast swathes of that nation, such as (Estasian-Lookshan Military) to represent it's armed forces or (Estasian-Lookshan Shogunate) to represent it's broad political spectrum of Dragon-Blooded Exalts. He would specifically be barred from naming (Estasian-Lookshan Tripartite), as the group is famously insular and refuses to speak with, meet with, and if at all possible, be known of by any Exalted save the Alchemicals. This would also be the scope that an Alchemical Exalt who was Exalted to Champion the nation of Estasia-Lookshy would be operating within. On the other hand, the Celestial Exalted have broad scope as their compass is that of all of Autochthonia - this would also be the scope that power divinities operate upon. Unless the chronicle is for some reason tightly focused (or begins tightly focused) on a specific Nation, then Connections (Estasia-Lookshy) would be appropriate. If the chronicle starts that tight but later zooms out, then a connections background should expand to fit the chronicle. For example, if a campaign started with the characters as young, unconnected mortals, then Connections (Righteous Munitions Plant 27) would be an appropriate Connection, to represent that character's influence and contacts within the plant at which he works. If he later Exalts as a young Terrestrial, then that Connections rating would expand to (Estasian-Lookshan Industrial,) to represent his influence growing - he has the ears of foremen and managers at job sites all over Estasia-Lookshy, and can find contacts within the ranks of the workers. Later, if the scope of the chronicle grows so large that the Nation of Estasia-Lookshy is no longer the primary focus of the campaign (supposing, for example, that the character joins a fighter squadron stationed on Autochthonia's hull,) as his Essence and exploits grow, then his Influence could expand to all of (Estasia-Lookshy,) whereupon he would probably use his influence to attempt to convince more youngsters to join in the defense of their homeworld, and to convince the Shogunate and industry to ramp up, retool production and deliver as much ordnance as possible to the squadrons defending Autochthonia. A character who narrows the scope of his Connections beyond what the scale of the campaign calls for find that his influence goes much farther. If the previous example's character started off with Connections 5 (Righteous Munitions Plant 27's workers) then he'd effectively have Legendary Connections amongst the workers of that plant; at that stage, his very word alone could call a halt to a planned strike - or cause an immediate wildcat walk-out. After he Exalted, if he maintained his influence as Estasian-Lookshan Industrial Workers instead of Industrial in general, he could create calm among the workers within the span of a few meetings - or organize a labor strike that would bring the Estasian-Lookshan military-industrial complex to a screeching halt. After the scope of the campaign expanded yet again, he could maintain (Estasian-Lookshan Populat) as his Connections at rating 5, effectively Legendary; a word from him could cause the young men and women of Estasia-Lookshy to walk off the job in droves sufficient to cripple the nation, and report to the hull defense sectors to join up. Broadening your scope is possible too, but it imposes an effective -2 penalty. For example, suppose our hero of industry started with his Connection 5 (Estasian-Lookshan Industrial Workers) while he was still an heroic mortal worker at the plant, he would be known throughout all of the working men and women of Estasia-Lookshy: effectively all of the Populat, as "that firebrand down Plant 27's way" His ability to influence both within and without Plant 27 would be diminished (as he's spending so much time interacting with the worker bosses and crewmembers of the other plants that he doesn't have enough time to dedicate to the hard-working men and women of his own plant,) but he could spread it much farther, as if he had a Connections rating of 3. This would allow him to spread word of the plight of Plant 27 to the other bosses, and (if he's convincing enough) get them to plan a strike in support of Plant 27. Once the scope of the game expanded, he could lose the -2 penalty and keep the scope as it was, thus effectively getting Legendary connections, or expand it to the entire Industrial sector, as he now knows managers and executing officers as well, with a rating of 5. Or he could again expand his influence, keeping an effective rating of 3 - only now that he's Exalted, everyone in Estasia-Lookshy knows who he is and what he's done, and he has contacts both within and without of the industrial sector of the Populat. Once the campaign expanded a third time, if he again expanded his sphere of influence, he could be known of, his name and contacts stretching into every rank of the industrial workers of every concentration of people on Autochthonia; he'd never have a hard time finding an ear willing to listen, for sure, and his call to action would probably draw off small numbers of everybody's workers, not enough to make a dent in anyone's productivity. Familiar All characters draw upon the Familiar background found in Manual of Exalted Power: The Alchemicals, pages 93-94. Henchmen As in Dreams of the First Age Book 2: Lords of Creation, page 38. It is possible that other Henchmen types might occur, such as lesser divinities and intelligent automata. Manse Surprisingly, this background is not absent in the Wyld Odyssey chronicle. The Silver Chair is large enough and flavored appropriate to develop demenses which may be tapped as manses. The tapping of these locations is always as the pleasure of Luna, and if the person who so benefits from a tapped manse displeases her, she may threaten to revoke it - or simply cause the Chair's fluid geomancy to shift, rendering the Manse an inert and elaborate building. They can be any rating from none to 5, and owing to the liquid nature of the Chair's geomancy, may be nearly any sort of aspect; the five Elements, Solar, Lunar, Sidereal, even Abyssal; though not Infernal. Luna's whims are often opaque: she might walk up to a newborn Lunar and grant them a Manse 5 out of the black, but deny any Manses whatsoever to an Elder, even one who has undertaken innumerable amazing feats in her name. Panoply Panoply is to non-combat artifacts what Arsenal is to ordnance. The Divine Ministers and other inhabitants of Autochthonia are less concerned about Celestial achievements in the Panoply background than in the Arsenal background; there is effectively no limit, as one's Wealth limit will be the deciding factor. It functions as found in Dreams of the First Age Book 2: Lords of Creation, Pages 39 - 41. Savant Though Bathistophon is a much more contemplative god than Autochthon, more interested in paradoxes and mysteries of existence than in creating, everyone with a Soulgem (which is everyone) has the potential to tap this background to any degree they will pay for. Savant may be found in Manual of Exalted Power: The Alchemicals, page 96, among other places (it's identical in all.) Sifu Yes, anyone can get this one. The master does not necessarily need to be a Sidereal if you have no interest in the Sidereal Martial Arts syles (Thousand-Faceted Nelumbo is certainly a legendary - and some might say fictional - Sifu, for example,) but it can be. Wealth Wealth represents different things in Autochthonia, but the end result is the same: it's Your Ability To Get Stuff. Specifically, in Autochthonia, it represents your access to resources that may be forged into, or traded for, what you want. During the journey in the Wyld, every Solar with Wyld-Shaping Technique (which was every Solar older than five years old) had effectively Legendary Wealth for the purposes of acquiring anything she wanted, as she could simply go to or beyond the hull and invoke the Charm to Shape what she needed. Those days are over. The Emptiness is not the Wyld, and is no more readily Shaped than the heart of Autochthonia, which is to say it's not readily Shaped at all. Resources are once again finite, and while they may be an expansive finite number, they are not in''finite. There are still many ways to achieve Resources: one can be a member of a Nation's ruling elite or someone they pay frequently to (though this would be better termed ''salary, it is not the divine Salary known of in Yu-Shan and is effectively Wealth,) one may have the puissance to personally find an untapped resource tube in Autochthonia and tap it for exploitation. One may be good at socializing the resources one wishes out of the allocations when the resources which were stripped from Creation are returned from Elsewhere for supplementary distribution, or one might be using the Wyld clouds found in the Emptiness and using Wyld-Shaping Technique to turn it into what one needs. Regardless, Wealth is your ability to get a lot of stuff. It functions as found in Dreams of the First Age Book 2: Lords of Creation, Pages 44-45. A new character is limited to a Wealth rating of 3. Category:Exalted